If you consider yourself patriotic, enjoy a new challenge and could stand an extra $120 in your pocket, the Davidson County Election Commission wants you.

Commission officials are lining up poll workers and officers for elections in May, August and November. They are 300 people short of the 1,600 they need to make sure problems that occurred at the polls in 2012 are not repeated.

“We were undermanned and undertrained,” said Kent Wall, the administrator of elections, who took the job in November.

“Our goal is not to just get by. Our goal is to have a reserve of people we can call upon.”

There’s a certain old-fashioned charm to working a poll on Election Day. The poll workers often bring food to share with one another, and many precincts have workers who have done it so many times, it’s like old home week. But the go-to poll workers on the list are getting older, and the commission has never, until now, pushed younger voters to work the polls.

“We are actively recruiting,” Wall said. “One of the things we ramped up was the high school registration program. We will recruit before every election.”

Former election administrator Albert Tieche was fired after widespread problems in the 2012 presidential election. The state, in a written report, called it “an unacceptable pattern of serious errors.” Those included failing to open early voting on a Saturday, problems with legal notices, sample ballots and voting technology. The outcome of two 2012 primary elections could have been influenced by the bungling of new electronic voting technology. Polling places were “grossly understaffed,” the state report said. There weren’t enough voting machine operators in 55 of 160 precincts.

Wall is determined not to let that happen again. You can be a poll worker if you are available from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on May 6, Aug. 7 and Nov. 4, or until the last voter in line has voted. There also are required classes. You will be paid $120 for working each election day and $15 for training classes.

You must be a registered Davidson County voter, be at least 17 years old, live in Nashville and have your own transportation.

Wall said applicants need to understand that “it’s a punishing day,” adding. “It’s not just the 12 hours the polls are open. It’s the getting there, the tearing down, the setting up.”

The charm of it is not just the Crock-Pots full of sausage balls that workers bring, or the little flag stickers they give you after you vote. It’s that the poll workers learn the names of their neighbors.

“It takes on a family atmosphere,” Wall said. “We want to position it not as a drudge or a burden, but as a duty.”

When I was in college, I would have killed to make $120 in one day. What a great opportunity to participate in electing our lawmakers.

Gail Kerr’s column runs on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. She can be reached at 615-259-8085 or gkerr@tennessean.com.